


If you lean on me (I won't let you fall)

by Secret_kingdom



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort but mostly comfort, I think there aren't enough minffel fics and I am here to solve that, set in an undetermined time during the mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25405834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Secret_kingdom/pseuds/Secret_kingdom
Summary: "‘With all due respect Commander I have no intentions of leaving you like this.’‘As I said, Eiffel, I appreciate your concerns but as your superior officer I am telling you to-‘‘And as your friend, I am going to have to dismiss that order.’"---Renée has a breakdown after a particularly bad day. Eiffel is there to comfort her. Plus, zero gravity hugging, overstepping several workplace boundaries and a particularly bad hemorrhoid.
Relationships: Doug Eiffel/Renée Minkowski
Comments: 7
Kudos: 27





	If you lean on me (I won't let you fall)

**Author's Note:**

> I just think that Renée Minkowski deserves to be cuddled and also all the happiness in the world.

Eiffel was floating slowly towards his room, rubbing his face tiredly and trying really hard to not think about the events of the day. It had been a rough day, and that was saying something considering their history.

Minkowski had retired to her room earlier than he had, which was a clear sign that something wasn’t right. Maybe she just needed some rest, but Eiffel couldn’t help stopping in front of her door, considering if he should try to talk to her. He stared at the door and wondered if she would want to see him as much as he wanted to see her. If she needed him- no, of course she didn’t need him. That was stupid. But maybe… maybe she could use a distraction. He stared at the door.

And then he heard it.

It was quiet, almost nothing. He would have missed it had he not been quietly waiting for something to indicate that he was welcome there.

She was crying. It was clear now. Soft sobs were coming from behind the door and not a second passed until Eiffel’s hand moved on instinct to knock on her door.

Silence. Muffled steps that stopped behind the door. Eiffel lowered his hand slowly.

‘Commander?’

‘Eiffel.’ She said simply. Her voice trembled, but he could tell she was trying to sound composed.

‘Can I come in?’

Some seconds passed.

‘It’s not the moment, Eiffel.’

He was not going to give up that easily.

‘Please, commander. Uh…it’s important.’

He could hear her sigh and she took a couple more seconds to open the door. She let him in without meeting his gaze and turned her back at him as soon as he closed the door behind them.

‘What did you want?’ Now that they were in the same room her voice made what had been happening much clearer. Eiffel felt his heart sink and the immediate urge to make something, anything, that would make her feel better. He resisted the pull of his body towards her. He didn’t want to risk being kicked out.

‘Are you okay?’ He mentally slapped himself for that one. Of course she wasn’t okay. That was the whole point.

She turned around, trying to dry her last tears with her sleeve. Her whole face was red and puffed. Eiffel wanted to punch Cutter, Hilbert, the monster plant and even the goddamned star for making her feel like that. He didn’t say anything.

‘I’m sorry Eiffel. You shouldn’t have to see me like this. If you don’t mind, we can’t talk about whatever you wanted to talk about in the morning.’ She started floating towards her door to open it.

‘Wait! Wait, no, I- ‘She stopped to look at him expectantly and _God_ , he really wanted to hug her right now. Keep it together, Eiffel, he thought. ‘I just wanted to see how you were. You know, after….’ He gestured vaguely. ‘everything.’ 

And then Minkowski did something amazing. Something that made Eiffel’s heart stop in its tracks for an instant. She smiled. It was small, shy, and the sadness still lingered on the edges, but it was sincere and, he couldn’t deny, relieving.

It was also so beautiful that Eiffel missed the first few words that she said next. He got the message anyways.

‘…won’t be necessary. But thank you.’

‘With all due respect Commander, I have no intentions of leaving you like this.’

‘As I said, Eiffel, I appreciate your concerns but as your superior officer I am telling you to-‘

‘And as your _friend_ , I am going to have to dismiss that order.’

Her look changed. She looked like she was trying to fight a smile again and her gaze was fixed on Eiffel like she was seeing him for the first time. He suddenly felt incredibly vulnerable, but he didn’t know why. Tears were forming in her eyes again.

The thought came to Eiffel in that moment that there had been a time where the two of them were just co-workers at best. He used to think of Commander Renée Minkowski as little more than a pain in the ass, an annoying stuck up who was better off on the opposite side of the ship as he was, thank you very much. He almost laughed at the memory. He didn’t know what had happened, really. It was the little things. The face she made when she was frustrated or concentrating really hard on something. The passion she put in the team-building activities despite having worked the entire day before them. Her sincere smiles, like the one she had just given him, that became more frequent as they became closer. Almost dying together a few times does that to people, he thought. Because he could tell he had grown on her, too. It was more often than not now that he noticed the fondness behind her disapproving remarks and the badly disguised laughs at his bad jokes. When he had started making them for her he couldn’t remember.

He had once wished for peace between them, but they were way past the point of mutual tolerance. Eiffel looked at the woman in front of him, her tears rolling down her reddened cheeks. She had all her guard down and Eiffel realized that she was as scared as him. She had been keeping it together for her crew, but in that moment, Eiffel could see all the weight she was carrying on her and his heart broke to pieces that he hadn’t seen it sooner.

He jumped to wrap his arms around her. The force of the impact in zero gravity pulled them both against the wall behind her.

‘Sorry.’ He said, but he didn’t move. 

She was sobbing again, and for a moment Eiffel thought of letting go of her. Maybe she didn’t want this. Maybe he was overstepping several workplace boundaries. He loosened his arms slightly.

She pulled him closer again.

And Eiffel hugged back, like he had wanted to do since he entered the- screw it, since he had wanted to do for _months_ now. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his waist and she had her head buried in his chest, leaving a wet spot of tears on his t-shirt.

They stayed like that for a while, silently floating around and holding closely onto each other. Eventually, they collided with Minkowski’s bed and Eiffel used his leg to stabilize them onto it. She looked up at him.

‘Wanna talk about it?’ He asked, almost a whisper. She shook her head before resting it on his shoulder. Eiffel tried very hard not to react to the new contact, and he almost succeeded, truly. But her skin was hot against his neck and his heart -his stupid, traitorous heart- started beating faster than he had thought possible.

‘So.’ He decided to break the silence before his heartbeat got loud enough that it could be heard back on Earth. ‘I want you to know that even if I’m as useful as dead I-‘

‘Don’t say that.’ She said softly. He could feel her warm breath on his neck. Eiffel made a colossal effort to avoid shivering from that. It was the first time she had spoken in a while. Neither of them moved.

‘Well, Commander. You have to admit-‘

‘No.’ She cut him again. This time louder, her look more severe. She leaned back to look at him directly. ‘Don’t ever say that. Don’t you dare.’

She was scary when she got serious, that one Eiffel knew. But it was different this time, in a way he couldn’t entirely grasp.

She unwrapped one arm from his waist and put it on his shoulder. She wasn’t done talking. Eiffel waited.

‘Eiffel, when you-‘She closed her hand, clinging onto his shirt, and she put her face on his chest again. She was trembling. ‘I was so scared. You have no idea how scared I was thinking you…’.

He grabbed her waist gently and slowly moved her, closing the little space left between them. Something was burning in his chest. It hurt him endlessly, that burning. The fear, the grief. All the millions of ways in which everything could go wrong. In which he could mess up everything again. The possibility alone of hurting the woman in his arms was enough to make him want to run out of an airlock into the endless universe. He didn’t.

Somehow, in some kind of sick, twisted way, that burning also made him happier than he had been in years.

He pressed his lips to her forehead.

‘Okay.’ He said softly. They stayed like that for a few more minutes, their breathing getting slower and eventually synchronising. Not that he noticed that.

‘Actually,’ he said ‘I just wanted to let you know that you’ve got me. Whatever happens. Whoever comes next to try to kill us in some new and horrific way. I’m here with you. You don’t need to do this alone, Commander. Not anymore.’

She put her hand to his cheek, stroked it lightly with her thumb.

‘It’s my job, Eiffel, all of it. To care. To keep you safe. It’s not fair that I put that on you.’

‘No. Listen to me, Minkowski. What’s not fair is that you carry it alone. Whatever we get through, we get through together, okay? So don’t worry about me, Commander, because I think I have proven to be resilient like a particularly bad hemorrhoid.’

She laughed at that. Her face was still a little blushed, but maybe it wasn’t the crying anymore. She looked into his eyes and smiled, and he felt small and big at the same time. He felt alive, electrified, like something was about to explode. He leaned down.

‘You’re an idiot.’ She said.

_And I love you._

She pulled him in, and their lips met in the middle.

\----

A while passed. Minkowski’s fingers were running absentminded circles on Eiffel’s chest. It was late, and they both knew it. Not like “late” is a thing in space, of course, but they both knew that they’d need to get up and start working in just a few hours.

Eiffel opened his mouth. Closed it. He didn’t want to be the one to say it. He didn’t want to be alone. He didn’t want to leave her alone. Their eyes met and they both smiled at the same time. He had accidentally pulled a few strands of hair out of her otherwise neatly tied bun. He tucked them behind her ear slowly.

‘Minkowski.’ He said. She knew what he was going to say.

‘Eiffel.’

‘Yes?’ 

‘Please,’ she whispered ‘stay.’

He felt the relief unclench his body. He could do that.

‘Anytime, Commander.’ He said, before he captured her lips again. ‘Anytime.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading I love all of y'all! As always, kudos and comments are appreciated <3


End file.
